The purpose of the Neurosciences Graduate Training Program at University of California San Diego is to provide broad-based training for students interested in pursuing a career in neuroscience. This training grant will support 1st and 2nd year students in the Neurosciences Graduate Program, which brings together an outstanding group of investigators from UCSD and the Salk Institute. Both UCSD and The Salk Institute provide substantial human and financial resources to ensure a thriving program. During the past 20 years this program has evolved into one of the top neuroscience programs in the country and attracts an exceptional group of graduate students. The program is characterized by broad faculty participation and active student involvement. Under the training program students will participate in a rigorous and multifaceted training plan, which includes an introductory 'boot camp', a core course sequence (cellular and molecular neuroscience, systems neuroscience, and cognitive and clinical neuroscience), courses in statistics and neuroanatomy, a course on scientific conduct and ethics, and elective courses in basic and clinical neuroscience. In addition the students will carry out three research rotations during their first year to gain exposure to different areas of neuroscience and will use that experience as the basis of selecting a thesis lab. The coursework and research will be complemented by various activities to enhance the scientific training of the students and to facilitate interaction with other neuroscientists. These include participation in the Neuroscience seminar series (in which students host a distinguished neuroscientist each week), a weekly journal club (where students discuss papers by visiting scientists), and weekly research rounds (where students present their current research), and an annual retreat (which features two days of research talks from faculty and students working in all areas of neuroscience). The progress of trainees will be evaluated based on performance in courses, rotation evaluations, and annual evaluations. Oversight for trainees will be provided at multiple levels, including direct advice from rotation and thesis advisors, interactions with an individually assigned prethesis advisor, feedback from the prethesis and thesis committees, and regular meetings with the program director. This training program will provide outstanding, broad-based training to neuroscience graduate students during their pre-dissertation years.